Valentine's Day
by hildekitten
Summary: It's V-day and romance is in the air. Or is it? Some seem to like or love it more than others but everyone has a plan. Especially Mick, who simply has to ask Beth something. Timeline wise it's the follow up to Voodoo and my 10th post-Sonata story. Fluff!


_Hard Rock Hallelujah!  
Hard Rock Hallelujah!_

The saints are crippled  
On this sinners' night  
Lost are the lambs with no guiding light

A radio alarm loudly announced the start of the day for the room's occupants with loud hardrock music. It was dark, heavy curtains pulled shut so no matter how hard the sun tried, it can't reach it's rays into the room. There was the low hum of an industrial freezer, standing unoccupied next to the king sized bed. Ophelia sleepily lifted her head, groaning in protest at the sound and tried to shut down the alarm, before hitting the light switch above her bed, slapping her hand around trying to reach for the off switches on the alarm clock, causing Ben next to her to groan and pull a pillow over his head as soon as the light went on.

"Aww poor baby" she teased. She was wiping her eyes and waking up rather cheery fast.

"Seriously Ophelia, what kind of screetching did you program into that alarm clock?" His voice sounded muffled, his face still underneath the pillow.

"Lordi, isn't it awesome? They won Eurosong once, dressed up as demons, it caused quite the uproar."

Ben sat up, removing the pillow and looking at her in disbelief. "Can we wake up to something slightly less shouty next time?" He yawned and stretched.

"It's better than the 7am news." She said matter of factly, stretching as well, all catlike on the bedding.

He just pulled her in for a kiss, shutting her up.

Gently he slid a hand underneath her top, stroking her sides.

"You need to be at work in time today she teases."

"I still have time." He whispered before kissing her again.

*fade to Mick's kitchen.*

Beth was drinking coffee. Mick handed her a plate with eggs and toast, the spatula still in his other hand as his sister came down the stairs and wandered into the kitchen.

"Good morning!" She shouted out cheerfully, flopping down at the table. "Did you just cook for Beth?"

"I can manage toast and eggs thank you very much." Mick said, poking the spatula at her.

Beth just nods a greeting, happily munching her breakfast, clearly enjoying her boyfriend's cooking, even if it was just toast and eggs.

"So how's Talbot?" Mick asked, handing his sister a glass of A positive.

"Ben's good, why?" She raised a suspicious eyebrow at her older brother on general principle.

"I've not seen him around much lately, after that fight. And when you do get him to sleep over he seems to have vanished before I'm up. Or we're up." He smiled warmly at Beth, who returned the smile with just as much warmth.

"I think he's a bit embarrassed for acting the way he did. Plus he's got a lot of cases to deal with at the moment."

"We're overworked and understaffed, expect some cases to be shoved your way." Beth said, pausing her breakfast. "Hmm these eggs are soooooo good!" She returned to finishing her meal.

Ophelia leaned back, reading the paper quietly whilst Mick and Beth were enjoying each other's company.

"What are you doing for V-Day sis?" Mick broke the comfortable silence.

"Who what where?" she asked absentmindedly, looking up from her paper.

"Valentine's Day!" What are you doing? Beth asked.

"Oh you mean commercial hearts day" she replied frowning. "Nothing."

"What do you mean nothing?" her brother asked.

"Well for starters I'm not much of a v-day fan, and secondly, it's a full moon this year. And you know how Ben is on fool moons. Besides he spends those with his family anyway, I think they go and do lunar things."

"Oh gods yes, he gets so incredibly grouchy on a full moon!" Beth nods. "I have come to dread and hate full moons, and I used to love them as you well know. But they really mess with Ben's mood. He gets so cagey and snaps over everything."

"Wow, it's like werewolf PMS." Mick chuckles. "I'm so telling Josef about this. Sis, up, go to class."

Groaning she got up. "Noon at Guillermo's?"

"Yeah see you then!"

"Bye Beth!"

"Bye Lia."

She watched her lover's sister leave in the direction of the bathroom and turned back to Mick. "So romantic dinner at home then?"

"Sounds good to me. I'll make sure to make a reservation for home delivering so we can just you know, have dinner together. Just let me know what you want and I'll organise everything." He leaned in for a kiss, which Beth was happy to oblige.

Beth smiled warmly. "Sounds great. My place though."

"Fine by me." Mick nods in agreement.

**Mick voice-over**

"A nice meal, Beth in bed for hours, romance all around. I have to remember to pick up flowers and warn everyone I know to not disturb me unless it really is an emergency."

*fade to Ben's office, he's mulling over some paperwork whilst occasionally sipping from a cup of coffee*

Ophelia came wandering in, carrying a backpack and her camera bag.

"So if I am to believe my brother and Beth, we're to celebrate this thing called Valentine's Day." She said matter of factly by way of greeting her beloved.

He raised an eyebrow at her, obviously amused. "Hi to you too babe. And what do you mean, 'this thing called Valentine's Day'? You lived in Paris, which is the most romantic city in the world if we are to believe popular culture, and here you are pretending you are clueless about it." He sat back, smiled at her with a twinkle in his brown eyes and folded his arms, clearly entertained.

"Well as far I can see it we have two options. Either we celebrate it or we don't. I'm fine with either." She said matter of factly. "Actually what I'm trying to say is: I know it's a full moon, and I just want you to know I won't go all crazy girlfriend on you if you prefer to do your monthly family thing rather than celebrate a holiday invented by Hallmark. I know you love me, you don't have to prove it on February 14th."

"You really aren't good with holidays aren't you?" He asked, clearly amused.

"Is this still about Christmas?"

"I would like to point out to you that you went to Paris and holed up with 4 of your uncles which are as big a grinch as you are."

"It's a holiday invented by Coca Cola and Hallmark! And I got back in time for your annual family Christmas feast!"

"Only barely and after I had to leave several grumpy messages on your answering machine and threatened to come get you. And you made those kind of lame remarks all the time."

"I did bring the best gifts ever so everyone was happy to let me make snarky holiday comments. Thank you Paris!" She pronounced Paris the French way on purpose.

"Name one holiday that isn't an international commercial scheme." Ben challenged her.

"Air Kraken Day."

He gave her a suspicious look. "I know you well enough not to argue this matter, and I don't have the time to find out what Air Kraken Day is. But I'm not good company when it's full moon I'm afraid."

"What do you do exactly on a full moon?"

"Run in the woods in wolf form and hunt. It's the preferable option. There's just things I don't want to inflict on you."

"What, like moon madness driven libido? You forget you're not the only lunar I've dated, I know more about it than you think. Besides, it's not like your libido isn't crazy as it already" she teased. It earned her an annoyed look. Ben clearly wasn't happy about being reminded of her past relationship with Jules Duvall.

Growing serious again he put keys on the desk. "I went to the pool house, threatened to set Jules' hair on fire and he graciously handed me the keys to the family lodge up in the Angeles woods. Up to you. If you don't want to go, I'll just give them back to Jules and I'm going to spend the day wandering town taking portrait photos. V-day is always awesome when it comes to photos, so many emotions." She sounded exited.

"You really don't know whether or not you even want to participate in V-day from anywhere that isn't behind your camera don't you?" Ben was clearly amused at this newly discovered quirk of his girlfriend.

"Why do you think I gave you the keys and am making you decide! I'm not loosing out either way. In any case, I bought nylons with hearts on them, people can't accuse me of not participating!" She grinned.

They were disrupted by Carl and Jules walking in.

"Hey Ben, we got that guy ready for you to interrogate him."

"Thanks Carl, I'll be right there."

"Hey Ophelia." Carl greeted.

"Hey." She smiled.

Jules was pointedly ignoring her.

"Are you guys having a spat?" Carl asked looking from Jules to Ophelia and back, sensing the hostility hanging in the room so thick you could nearly slice it like cake.

"I threatened to set his hair on fire this morning, he's still grumpy." She shrugged.

"I don't even want to know." Carl shook his head.

*fade to Mick's apartment*

Mick walked in with Josef, both of them grinning like schoolboys.

"Does she do anything but read, take photos and get into trouble?" Josef asked as he noticed Ophelia on the couch with her kindle.

"She has a whole life going on outside of that I'm sure, she just pretends this is all she does to lull us into a false sense of security." Mick nodded.

"I can hear you, you know."

"Did you apologise to Jules yet?" Mick asked.

"Yes."

"Good because he was complaining rather vigorously."

"His hair could do with a trim mind." Josef muttered darkly. "Possibly with a hedge trimmer or a lawnmower."

"So did you speak to Ben yet?" Mick asked, ignoring his best friend.

"What are you doing for V-Day Jo?"

"It's Josef. And Simone and I are planning a romantic trip to Paris thank you very much."

"Say hello to la famille." Ophelia added cheerfully.

Josef opened his mouth to retort but the urgent kicking against the door distracted him.

Mick hurried over to pull it open, looking at Jules who was holding a huge box in his arms and kicking the door with his heavy boots.

"Sorry we don't buy at the door." Ophelia shouted from the sofa.

"Ha-ha funny…" Jules said. "Mum send this huge box, addressed to the both of us."

"She does realise that we're not dating anymore nor live together right?"

"Yes but you know her, she's lazy, can't be bothered sorting out two boxes, she prefers to dump it all in one box and let dad sort out the rest."

"Mind moving aside Jules?" Ben asked, appearing behind the blonde vampire together with Simone and Beth. He was holding a cooler in one hand and balancing pizza boxes on the other.

"MORE BOXES!" Ophelia shouted, diving for the pizza.

Mick grabbed her around the waist and hoisted her over his shoulder with one arm, waving in his guests.

"Fresh blood for the vamps and pizza for me and Beth." Ben said, handing Josef the cooler and dropping the pizza on the table.

"Six pizzas? Really?"

"One for me, five for Ben." Beth nodded.

"I get hungry in the evening!" he defended himself. "I pretend all day that I have a normal human appetite. I can't survive on salads."

Mick set his sister down and went to get some glasses whilst Ophelia got out wine for the human guests.

In the mean time Jules had set down the box on the floor and sat down besides it, drew claws and carefully started slicing open the tape on the box.

Ophelia put down the glasses on the table and padded over, flopping down on the ground on the opposite side of the box, starting to slice through tape on her end.

"We have knives and scissors you know guys." Mick said.

Simone and Josef were curiously looking at the box, obviously eager to see what was inside.

Jules and Ophelia both peered inside and Ben nearly dropped a slice at Ophelia squeeing loudly and grinning like a loon. Jules' expression was pretty much the same only without the girlish sounds.

"My poor eardrums" Josef complained at the high pitched sounds his best friend's sister was emitting.

They looked at each other, the contents of the box and at each other again before high fiving and shouting "PETIT BATEAU!" at the top of their lungs.

"What?" Simone asked, looking confused at Josef "is this some kind of French vampire ritual? Because I'm not doing that when we're in Paris and you hand me a box."

Ophelia held out a long sleeved top from the box "our favourite brand, it's French. You have to shout the name, the commercial said so. This is yours Jules, it's your size." She threw it at him, singing a cheery French song.

"Oh!" Simone said, coming to inspect the contents of the box, sitting down next to Ophelia. "Maybe we can go shopping there too Josef! They have such nice basics"

"It's on the Champs! I love that shop so much!" Ophelia was still in full enthusiasm mode.

"Ok so date in bar. This or this?" he held up two shirts. Beth and Simone pointed at a blue and white striped one.

He pulled off the shirt he was wearing, causing Beth and Simone to cast appreciative glances in his direction. Even Ophelia sneaked a peek whilst pretending to inspect the rest of the box. The other guys just collectively rolled their eyes.

Pulling on the new shirt he grinned. "Can you get your stuff out Lia? Then I can put the rest back in the car, I need to go or I'll be late."

"Sure." She started stacking things next to the box. "You look very French in that marinière by the way. Now you just need a bottle of wine, a baguette and a beret."

"I may hit you." He said dryly.

"I would say that I'd get my big brother to kick your ass if you do, but you'll just get Lance because that would be ever so much more efficient."

"Please spare me Lance." Mick added to the conversation. "And what do you mean, Lance would be more efficient, I could take Jules!"

"You really couldn't." Jules stated dryly. "But Lance could. Sadly."

"Yeah well Lance could probably take any of us without even doing an efford." Josef shrugged.

"Lance scares me!" Beth nodded solemny, taking another bite of the slice of pizza in her hands.

"Célia must think we are incapable of shopping ourselves." Ophelia frowned at the stack of clothing in flat boxes.

"Nah. She just knows how much we love our Petit Bateau and you know she insists on buying everyone in the family stuff for V-day. Anyway…" he stood and picked up his box, leaving for the door again. "Au revoir! Don't do anything I wouldn't."

Mick chuckled as he let him out, saying goodnight to his "uncle".

"I don't think that leaves a lot of things not to do." Josef whispered as soon as Jules closed the door behind him.

"Oh Josef don't be jealous!" Simone swatted her boyfriend's arm.

Ben was happily ignoring the entire box induced madness and sat there chewing through his pizzas.

"We should be off too." Josef said finishing his glass, standing up and reaching for Simone's hand.

"Later guys." Mick nodded.

"Shopping, tomorrow! Don't be late!" Simone told Beth, kissing her friend on the cheek before leaving.

"Don't forget to chew." Mick advised Ben.

Ben nodded gravely, shovelling more pizza in his mouth.

"He has werewolf things to do." Ophelia said in the midst of unpacking clothes, obviously having failed to notice Josef and Simone left. She seemed confused when she looked up and noticed them gone too.

Beth joined her on the ground after finishing her pizza.

"Wow these are really nice!" Beth said holding up a cute little top.

"Mine!"

"Let me borrow this tomorrow? Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaase!" Beth begged.

"But I only just got it!"

She looked at Beth's pleading face and handed over the garment. "Fine…"

Beth engulfed her friend in a hug.

"Arch hugs!" Ophelia shouted before hugging Beth back and laughing.

Mick was looking at Ben starting on his last pizza with fascination.

"Dude, where do you leave it?"

"Werewolf metabolism." The other man replied in between bites.

"Lucky bastard!" Mick grumbled, returning to his liquid meal, looking jealous at the rapidly disappearing pizza.

Ben looked up when he finished, neatly folding up the empty boxes and putting them in the paper bin, which was really a big cardboard box. "Right, I gotta go. I'll see you guys later."

He kissed Ophelia goodbye before taking his leave as well.

"Everyone is abandoning us!" Ophelia faux wallowed.

"I'm still here." Beth pointed out.

"Only so you can steal my Petit Bateau when I fall asleep and then you'll perform sexual favours on my brother so he won't rat you out!" Ophelia said earnestly.

"You're not wrong." Beth agreed.

Both girls burst out in laughter.

"Just so you know, I would help her make that entire box disappear for enough sexual favours." Mick pointed out.

"Here, I've got two of these, you can have one." Ophelia generously handed her friend a grey top, causing Beth to utter happy thanks and Mick to chuckle.

"You're just trying to safeguard your stash sis."

"Shhhh you're spoiling my plan." She whispered in a frequency so low Beth couldn't understand a word.

Mick chuckled and took another sip from his glass.

**Mick voice-over**

"I have to admit, that is one cute top Beth is holding there. I'll look forward to taking it off her at a later time."

*fade to a bar downtown*

_Being like you are  
Well this is something else, who would comprehend?  
But some they do, lay claim that  
Divine purpose blesses them  
That's not what i believe. It doesn't matter anyway.  
A part of your soul ties you to the next world  
Or maybe to the last, I'm still not sure  
What i do know is, to us the world is different  
As we are to the world but, i guess you would know that_

Ben pushed open the door, hugging a guy greeting him as he walks in, exchanging pleasantries in greeting. He was smiling, his eyes shifting from human to wolf as he walked. It's a werewolf bar, and he's amongst his own here.

"Hey Ben! How's life with the vamps?" a guy at the bar asks cheerfully.

"Never a dull moment Jake, never a dull moment."

He grins as he shakes the guy's hand before hugging him.

Jake handed him a beer, "Thanks man" Ben grins before taking a drink.

"Your sister is here, she's over there in that booth, with a date." Jake grinned mischievously.

"Oh good I'll go say hi." Ben nodded grinning as well, making his way over the area pointed out to him, greeting other werewolves as he went.

"Hey Claire, how's my little sister doing tonight?" It was abundantly clear he was dead set on embarrassing her with his obnoxious big brother routine. He stopped dead in his tracks, the teasing big brother grin wiped straight of his face as he saw who Claire's date was.

"Jules? What are you doing here? This is a werewolf bar."

"Do you guys know each other?" Claire asked, raising an eyebrow, her golden brown wolf eyes reflecting curiosity.

"You can say that yes." Jules chuckled, his silvery blue wolf eyes twinkling.

"Wait, your eyes, you're…"

"Half and half like my mother yes." He nodded cheerfully. Didn't Ophelia tell you?

"No, no she didn't." He glanced back towards the bar seeing Jake in fits of laughter. "And neither did Jake for that matter."

"Must be payback for something we did." Jules shrugs.

Claire just sat there sipping from her beer, giving her brother the stink eye.

"Will you guys excuse me, I need to go have a conversation with my girlfriend." Ben said, turning his heel.

Jules and Claire watched him leave, returning their attention to each other.

*fade to Ophelia's bedroom. She's sitting at the desk, reading over a college assignment when there's a knock on the door and Ben wanders in.*

"Why didn't you tell me that Jules is dual natured?" He sounded more than a little annoyed.

"I thought it'd be more fun if you found out yourself. It seemed appropriate punishment for that stunt you pulled a couple of weeks ago. Frankly I thought Mick would take pity on you and tell you. Or else Josef or Beth."

"Does everyone know!" He shouted.

"Probably not _everyone_." She chuckled.

"This is NOT a laughing matter Ophelia!"

"What did Jules do this time?" She sighed deeply expecting some kind of dramatic rant.

"His date is my sister!"

Ophelia just looked at him for a second and then started laughing so hard she fell right off her chair.

"It's not funny!"

She sat up, wiping tears of laughter from her eyes "oh but it is! If he fucks up Claire is going to hand him his ass! Oh my god I just hope I'll be there to see it!"

Ben seemed to consider this and then walked over to his girlfriend, crouching down next to her and looking her in the eyes with his golden brown wolf eyes. His voice was low, deliberate. "You know, you can't get mad at me for not telling you things and then pull a stunt like this. As punishment, we're going to go to that log cabin. And you're going to refrain from making any snide, sarcastic or bitchy comment about valentine's day. And you are not going to wear anything themed either. And you're going to tell me everything else I still need to know, no more secrets between us. Got it?"

*fade from Ophelia's surprised face to Mick and Beth, who are happily relaxing on the couch in Beth's apartment, making out, the sunlight streaming into the living room, giving a warm atmosphere to the area. She was wearing briefs and his shirt, he was in his boxers and nothing else.*

"Want to hear something really funny? I heard this all straight from Ben this morning." Beth asked, she was obviously dying to tell him.

"What?" Mick indulged her.

"Yesterday Ben went to a werewolf bar to go drinking with his buddies."

"There's werewolf bars?"

"Yeah why wouldn't there be, you guys have bars too don't you?" She gave him a look.

"There is that." Mick agreed.

"Well turns out that his sister was there on a date."

"Awkward?" Mick asked, unsure of where this particular story was going.

"Oh you have no idea, her date was Jules!"

Mick stared at her in disbelieve "seriously? Oh man I wish I could have seen the look on Talbot's face when he saw his younger sister there with that playboy."

"Oh it gets better." Beth said, her voice promising of better things indeed.

"Tell me!" He was really getting into it now.

"Ben found out that Jules is a turned werewolf."

"Oh man, I was so hoping I'd be there when that happened!" Mick complained.

"Well apparently he went straight to your place and had a go at Ophelia about it. She apparently laughed at him. A lot."

"Oh so that was that laughing we heard."

"Yeah it must have been. Anyway, he thinks that he has the perfect punishment for her by forcing her to celebrate valentine's day. He's so proud of himself."

"He has no clue what he's getting himself into." Mick chuckled.

"Well I know what you're going to get yourself into the coming couple of hours." Beth whispered in his ear huskily before kissing his neck softly.

Mick let out a soft appreciative growl before capturing Beth's mouth with his own.

_I walk the streets with a song in my head  
We ebb and we flow so  
Got my toes on my pup at the foot of my bed  
My heart always seems to know  
Now take the glitz back, I want the soul instead  
'Cause I found some kind of fairytale_

*fade to Josef's living room, a week after V-Day. The whole gang is there, sipping blood or wine and listening to Simone raving on about Paris incessantly. Josef is sitting there with a boyish grin plastered on his face.*

"Oh I wish I could go to Paris!" Beth exclaimed, stroking the cashmere cardigan with Eiffel tower embroidery her friend brought back for her for the umptieth time.

"Well maybe someday I could take you." Mick suggested "But for now I think we might have to stick to something closer by."

Beth chuckled happily and kissed him.

"So how were the woods? Did you have fun howling at the moon?" Josef asked Ben.

The werewolf stretched lazily, pulling Ophelia in his arms.

"Awesome." Was all he said with emphasis and a grin on his face that would make the Cheshire Cat jealous.

"I don't want details." Josef held up one hand, sounding extremely determined.

Mick took a deep breath.

**Mick voice-over**

"I better go ahead with the plan before I loose my nerve again, I already fluked out on doing this on Valentine's day."

Mick took Beth's hand "come outside with me for a second?"

She nodded and intertwined her fingers with him, allowing him to lead her outside onto the balcony, closing the doors behind them and drowning out the sound of his sister taunting Josef and Simone laughing. She marvelled at the view in front of her.

"I'd really like to take you to Paris you know." Mick told her, looking out at the view and then at her.

"I know, and I'm sure some day you will." Beth smiled warmly at him, leaning in for a kiss.

"Maybe we could go there on our honeymoon." Mick mused.

"What did you just say?" Beth asked, shocked, as if she was unsure she heard him correctly.

He looked at her, gathering all his courage before dropping on one knee and fishing a little box out of his pocket, opening it and revealing an antique ring with a single diamond.

"Beth Turner, will you marry me?" His voice was unsteady, hopeful and emotional.

She clasped her hands in front of her mouth, tears forming in her eyes.

"It's totally ok if you have to think about it! I know that you're mortal and I'm not but you were right that you don't have forever and I didn't want to wait 'till what seems like the end of days and…"

She put a finger on his lips, silencing his rambling.

"You're right, there's so many things we need to discuss, so many things to arrange. But I can't think of anyone else I'd want to spend my life with. I don't have to think about this, yes Mick, I want to be your wife!"

He hugged her close to him, tears of happiness in his steel grey eyes. "I love you Beth, I'm so happy you want to be my wife, you make me happy." He slid the ring on her finger as he said the words.

She looked up at him before kissing him passionately "I love you too Mick, I can't wait to be your wife, because you make me happy too" she whispered as the kiss broke.

**Mick voice-over**

"I've never been happier in my entire life as on this night, this moment right here. I get to spend the rest of my life with Beth, the woman I love with my whole heart and soul…"

Together they walked in again, hand in hand, into the questions and following congratulations of their friends.

Song List

Lordi "Hard Rock Hallelujah"

VNV Nation "Illusion"

Vanessa Carlton "Nolita fairytale"

Author's note: a huge thank you to everyone who's been reading my stories so far and who's been leaving comments and faving them, I'm glad you like them!

Happy Valentine's Day!

I know today isn't a full moon, but I took some liberties because it fitted better with my story, I hope you guys don't mind!


End file.
